LOTUS 107B Ford-Cosworth HBA3

   Even in 1993 Peter Collins, team principal of the Lotus team, had to fight a tough battle in order to ensure continuity in the presence of the historic Hethel team in Norfolk, England, in the top series. Constantly low on cash and with sponsors barely able to guarantee staff salaries, technical director Peter Wright can't help but use the same '92 107.

LOTUS 107B, Alessandro Zanardi
Montréal, Canadian GP

   The single-seater is updated to the "B" version by the designer Chris Murphy, author of the original Leyton House CG921 project from which the '92 Lotus 107 derives, to adapt it to the new technical regulations of the '93 season concerning the width of the rear tyres, the front track and ailerons. Like all the other cars of the '93 line-up, the Lotus also benefit from the possibility of installing an additional cantilevered wing in front of the main profile of the rear wing on high-load tracks, while for the rest of the car it remains substantially unchanged with the chassis carbon fiber monocoque on which the Ford-Cosworth HB V8 engine in the old specification 3, the first used by Benetton two seasons earlier, is mounted again this season, combined with the Xtrac six-speed semi-automatic gearbox.

LOTUS 107B, Johnny Herbert
Magny-Cours, French GP

   In an era in which all Formula 1 cars are fitted with electronic aids, the 107B is equipped only with the electronic suspension system designed by Lotus over ten years earlier, at the time of the late Colin Chapman and trusty Martin Ogilvie, and developed all these years. However, the team's budget is not sufficient to develop and operate this system properly, which also no longer represent an exclusive advantage, given that all the other teams have now developed and above all improved this system. Moreover, the decision to divert the few resources available to electronic suspensions, also focusing all the attention of the technicians on this system, is to the detriment of the development of other areas of the car, which are already lacking and which would need more attention.

LOTUS 107B, Alessandro Zanardi
Montecarlo, Monaco GP  

   The goodness of the original 107 project, already shown in the '92 season where reliability had been the car's Achilles heel, is still on display in the first races of the season where the confirmed Johnny Herbert and the newcomer Alex Zanardi manage to obtain decent results overall, such as in Brazil where both 107Bs finish in the points. However, as the season progresses things get significantly worse, especially for the Italian driver who is replaced in the last two races of the season by the rookie Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy, while Herbert still manages to get a couple of points placements in Great Britain and Belgium.

LOTUS 107B, Pedro Lamy
Estoril, Portuguese GP

   At the end of the season, the results obtained by the 107B almost faithfully followed those of the previous season, with 12 points and sixth place in the constructors' championship, against 13 points and fifth place in the standings obtained by the previous version of the single-seater in 1992.